A horrible student, and even worse patron faculty

As I reminded students about the upcoming presentations of their final projects, a silence descended upon the classroom, which, until then, had been overly energetic.  When I remarked on the sudden change, a student playfully remarked that my description of the protocols for the presentations made it sound intimidatory and cold.

And chuckles.

While I knew exactly what they meant--after all, not too long ago I was one nervous student who hated public speaking--my mind raced back a few years when in that very classroom I was subject to an academic version of the Spanish Inquisition. 

Thus, even as conversations resumed, I was still struggling to disconnect that old image from my mind.  There was only one way for me to work it out.  As we reached a pause in the topic we were discussing, I told the class that not too long ago, when I was the director of the Honors Program, a student had complained that I was intimidating students, and that in a different context, a faculty had complained that I have no sense of humor either.  And thus I wanted to make sure there wasn't that interpretation of "initimidatory."

Promptly, and without missing a beat, one student said, "is that why you now say jokes in class?"  Haha all around ... Yes, this is a very different set of students. Thankfully!

As I was driving back, my usual unwinding time, my mind drifted back to those incidents from a few years ago.

A student, "D," had complained to her advising faculty, "Professor A," that I resorted to intimidatory tactics with students, and that students were terrified of me.  This professor decided that the best course of action was to take it up with the faculty committee--without bothering to check with me first.  Which is why I now picture him as the notorious Torquemada :)

The faculty committee, in their infinite wisdom (or lack of) decided that they should allow "Prof. A" to conduct the inquisition.  Fun times!

Very much like a former colleague back in California, who remarked often that she didn't suffer fools well, I decided it was not worth my time to work with the likes of Prof. A and his ill-informed associates, and ended my directorial responsibilities for the program and returned to my full-time faculty responsibilities.

At a later meeting of the faculty committee, they motioned an apology for their actions.  Of course, Torquemada wasn't at the meeting!  At that time, "apologize" didn't exist for me to use, so I simply blew their apology off :)

Anyway, those were the years that I took home-baked cookies, brownies, and cakes to classes and meetings.  Thanks to these characters, I stopped doing that--why spend time and energy on faculty and students who behave so unprofessionally and discourteously even as they were eating the stuff I had taken, right?

But, this class is restoring my hope in students. Maybe I will take them cookies next meeting.

How about the faculty you ask? Ha, screw 'em--well, many of 'em! Not worth the crumbs.
The few who are worth my time, hey, you know who you are; thank you.

Here is that wonderful "Apologize"